Author
Topic: Triton V-10 Gas Mileage (Read 111625 times)

I just bought a 2007 Sightseer 29R with the V-10. On my first trip of 600 miles I got about 7.2 mpg. I had been told that the V-10 should get about 9 mpg. I'd like to know if this is normal, or if I should be looking for a problem.

I just bought a 2007 Sightseer 29R with the V-10. On my first trip of 600 miles I got about 7.2 mpg. I had been told that the V-10 should get about 9 mpg. I'd like to know if this is normal, or if I should be looking for a problem. Thanks,John

Welcome to the forum!

How fast were you going on the average?

But I doubt if anything is wrong. I have heard other reports that the high revving V-10 gets poor MPG.

There are many V-10 owner's in this forum, I am sure many of them can tell you what to expect at various speeds for the size of your rig.

We recently rented a 2007 Winnebago Vista 30R and averaged 7.57 mpg for 4250 miles. We drove about 65 max on the freeways and mostly 55 on the 2 lane roads.

The best tank was 8.8 mpg when we were driving in Utah on state back roads at 45 to 50 mpg. Worst tank was 6.7 mpg going thru Oklahoma and Arkansas on freeways. So your mileage is about what we got on the Ford V10 with a similar coach.

When I stay in the southeast on interstates and 60 to 65, I can get as much as 7.5 but usually closer to 6.5 normal driving. On some tankfulls out in Wyoming I only got 4MPG in the mountains. It depends an awful lot on road conditions and driving styles. Sounds like you are in the ballpark.

Between 7 & 8 is typical for that size rig and any gas engine. You would get about the same with the GM 8.1L V8. You can probably coax it to 8.0-8.5 if you drive with a really light foot, more gently that you would with a car. Don't try to accelerate with the pack and keep the top speed as steady as possible and in the 55-62 range and you will do better.

But with that same MPG, comes much better performance than you will get from a Ford V-10!

-Don- SSF, CA

You like the performance of the 8.1L Chevy over the V-10? How about the knocking and oil consumption issues? I know pre 2003 had those issues, not sure if its all sorted out. I know it takes Ford for ever to fix anything, not sure about GM

I have a 2007 Winnebago Aspect 24ft, when we went to Texas last year from AZ on the Interstate 40 I checked it and we got almost 12mpg whichI thought was pretty good and it has plenty of power. I know they use that same V10 in the bigger Winnebago's I don't think they would get that good milage with the additional weight, we weren't towing anything just set the speed control to 65 and sailed along.

You like the performance of the 8.1L Chevy over the V-10? How about the knocking and oil consumption issues? I know pre 2003 had those issues, not sure if its all sorted out. I know it takes Ford for ever to fix anything, not sure about GM

I tried to post this last night, but for whatever reason it didn't go through.

What fishon71 is referring to is the "piston slap" knocking sound that made news a few years ago. As best I can tell, only a relative handful of engines in pickups and Suburbans had the problem, and I believe it was traced to a problem with a batch of poorly-made piston rings from one of GM's suppliers, but I'll have to check into that.

A little more background: To the best of my knowledge, GM built two different variations of the 8.1L engine; a light-duty one for the pickups and Suburbans, and a heavier-duty one for the medium/heavy-duty chassis. One of my Chevrolet mechanic buddies told me that the heavy-duty version used different pistons, piston rings, valves and other assorted parts, although right off the bat, he couldn't give me a complete list.

I did some checking, and indeed there were at least two different RPO codes for 8.1 engines in any given year (there may have been more in some years, but my information was limited). This would lend some credence to what he told me, as GM doesn't simply create a different RPO for identical engines, there have to be some differences in order to necessitate that.

Long story short: Like you, Don and Gary, I've never, ever heard of a problem of any kind with the 8.1 in a motorhome.

Logged

2000 Jayco Designer 2730WFord E450 chassis (6.8L)"Livin' large on a small scale!"

I'll ignore the ford vs. chevy thing since it has been beaten to death many times over here.

As for V10 mileage, we have a 2008 chassis year V10 in a 35ft Winnebago. We took a 5200 mile cross country trip this year and averaged 60-66 mpg depending on traffic and terrain and averaged around 7.2 plus or minus a bit with no toad. This is based on scan gauge readings, but my actuals are a bit off due to generator usage.

My worst tank was 5.2 gunning it through the Appalachian mountains trying to keep up with cars up hills the first week I owned it (I didn't know better). The best was around 9.5 crossing the flats of ohio at 55mph with a tail wind. The rest has been around 7 give or take a bit.

Two years ago we went from PA to CA stopping at Yellowstone, Pacific Ocean, Grand Canyon, then to Albuquerque to see the balloon festival and then on the way home we stopped at Branson. Altogether we traveled about 7000 miles and averaged about 10.5 mpg which I thought was fantastic.

DandS

I just bought a 2007 Sightseer 29R with the V-10. On my first trip of 600 miles I got about 7.2 mpg. I had been told that the V-10 should get about 9 mpg. I'd like to know if this is normal, or if I should be looking for a problem. Thanks,John

John - I had an 05 29R with the V-10 for four years and averaged 7.5 mph pulling small toad. Now have 37' Newmar with the V-10 and it appears I'm getting around 7 mph. As others have stated, 7-8 mph is pretty normal for this engine.

When we bought our 2006 Fleetwood Storm, Ford V-10 Triton we were told that if you stayed between 61 an 63 miles per hour you would get your best gas mileage. So far it varies between 7 and 10 and I'm very happy, it could be worse. We also pull a toad.

We have the V-10 in a 2002 Itasca and seem to get 7+ MPG towing. We generally run 63MPH and 68 MPH.

I never have figured out the best way to climb steep hills. On school says the V-10 has small pistons and is made to run high RPMs - maintain speed up the hills and let the RPMs fly. Another school (the one I subscribe to) is; downshift till you find a gear that will pull the hill at around 3000 - 3200 RPM and don't stress the engine. This puts you in the truck lane with the other slow pokes, but I feel more comfortable there.

For best performance, you want to be in/near the sweet spot, where both torque and horsepower are near maximum. In the 3-valve version of the engine (most since 2003), it makes 362 hp at 4750 rpms and peak torque of 457 lb-ft at 3250 rpms. That means somewhere in the 4000 -4750 range will get you up the hill the fastest. It will probably sound like it is going to fly apart, but that's no where near the red line for rpms.

if you are not concerned about getting there fast then keeping the RPM's low & crawling up the big hills towards the top will get you a LOT better mpg then trying to maintain a certain speed by revving the engine. I always try to carry speed going down a hill to help me up the next one which on my last trip made me realize my RV does not allow me to go over 83mph. At the top of some of the long steep climbs I might only be going 25mph but I do not care. If I was in a hurry I wouldn't be driving my RV but taking my saab or buell up the hills